Photographs of George Edward Anderson

No photographs of Church historic sites during Joseph Smith’s lifetime are known. However, early in the 20th century, Utah photographer George Edward Anderson (1860–1928), driven by a need to record Latter-day Saint history, created a careful visual record of these places. While traveling to and from England between 1906 and 1913, where he served as a missionary, Anderson visited and photographed the location of key events in early Church history. He often enlivened the photographs by including people posed on site, near buildings or working, suggesting the activities of earlier times.